Amazon bets on design studio Superplastic with cash and first-look deals; Series based on the characters Crazed Janki and Googimon

In 1967 graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s fresh-out-of-college Benjamin Braddock is said to be the future in plastic. In 2023, Amazon is taking some of that advice to heart and betting some of its future on superplastics.

To be specific, that bet by the snarling character design company is taking the form of a $20 million investment round through the House of Bezos’ Alexa Fund. Additionally, Superplastic, comprised of Paul Budnitz and Huck Gee, has signed a first-look development deal with Amazon Studios to bring their simplistic street-level characters to streaming screens.

To that end and some drawings of superplastic’s OG synthetic celebrities, The Janaki and Googimon Show Development is already underway on Amazon.

Beyond promising that “each episode features a cast of animated and human celebrity friends” and will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime if picked up to series, there’s no word on when or what to expect from the studio. The Janaki and Googimon Show

However, with blood, guts, gore, anarchy and iconography galore as Superplastic’s calling card for collaborations with such captains of industry as cartoon supergroup Gorillaz and Mercedes-Benz, a recent high-speed partnership with a car company may provide a manic clue. Or two for what The Janaki and Googimon Show Can pan out:

Regardless of what that final J&G product looks like, today’s announcement has everyone beaming.

“Superplastic’s universe of synthetic celebrities has gained a cult following in every medium they touch,” said Superplastic founder and CEO Budnitz of the Amazon investment and development deal Wednesday. “The new collaborative partnership with Amazon Studios reaches a larger audience and provides us with a new playground for global destruction. We are grateful for the investment the Amazon Alexa Fund has given us to help Superplastic Universe continue to grow!”

Launched on a Kickstarter campaign nearly six years ago by KidRobot creator Budnitz and artist G, Superplastic has brought a special kind of collectible toy madness to the likes of Gucci, Fortnite, Pusha-T, Paris Hilton, Post Malone, The Weeknd and the like. Gorillaz was created by Vince Staples, as well as Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

Now Amazon, which surprisingly doesn’t sell superplastic figures and costumes, joins the gang at their everything store — yet.

“As we expand the Alexa Fund to address a wide range of consumer technologies, including ambient computing, smart devices and the future of entertainment, we are very excited to add Superplastic to our portfolio,” said Paul Barnard, director of the Alexa Fund, “Superplastic’s virtual celebrities delight audiences and meet their customers where they are and we see them as showcasing a new class of IP that is going to be increasingly relevant to the younger generation,” added the head of the venture capital fund founded in 2015. “We are proud to be an investor in Superplastic and Amazon Media. and excited to help entertainment teams identify more ways to delight customers.”

In its eight-year lifespan so far, the Amazon Alexa Fund has supported work in the areas of AI, web3 and other digital technologies. Along with Superplastic, those investments are seen as the future of the 29-year-old company, which has a current market value of $1.020 trillion.